Meeting of Rotary Club of Eureka
July 26, 2010

President Carlton Nielsen opened the meeting with a tinkle on the miniature cowbell that apparently was substituted for the real bell. He put out a plea to get it back before the end of the year. Ron Shoenherr led the pledge. Richard Whittaker did the invocation and included a special mention for Bob Palmrose, who is going in for some tests.

Carlton announced that the District Governor would be at the meeting on August 16th and that there would be no early leavers. Steve Justice recalled that he had insulted the DG during a recent meeting by substituting a personals ad for his bio. That cost Steve $10.

Next Carlton promoted Celebrity Chef and local boy Guy Fieri who will be at the County Fair August 12. Fieri will judge a barbeque competition, which will be covered by KIEM TV. Greg Williston presented a check for 2,100 to Melinda Booth of the Sequoia park zoo. The money will be used to purchase a portable defibrillator. Then Carlton mentioned that the Board of Supervisors had declared August “Backpacks for Kids Month”.

Carlton then put on his fining hat, a Russian Army chapeau that made him look like a clove of garlic. Kim Bauriedel was recognized for his recent return to the US. Virginia Bass and Matthew Owen were fined $50 for a trip to Hawaii. Ted Loring Jr. forked over $50 for his 30-year tenure as a director of the California Association of Realtors and a trip to Sacramento for an Association meeting. Ted pointed out that Bruce Rupp had also been a member of the Association. Carlton asked how effective they were as a lobbying association and Bruce replied “Successful? How’s the resale value on your house these days?” Nuff said.

Our program was Tom Schallert, head of the National Association of Blood Banks. He pulled on his dashiki and talked about his recent trip to Nigeria as part of the Rotary Project “Safe Blood Africa” Nigeria is a small country on the west coast of Africa, but it has a quarter of the population of the continent within its borders. 150 million people with a median age of 19 and a life expectancy of only 49 years. There is a great need for blood, but less than 1% of the supply comes from voluntary donors. Patients and their families have to recruit their own donors, or hire a “tout:” who buys blood on their behalf. Blood drawing facilities are primitive and unsanitary, and equipment is frequently broken and abandoned due to a lack of local repairmen. As a result the country has less than a third of the blood it needs for treatment, and thousands die who might have been saved by an infusion of red blood cells. The most challenging issue is the absence of active recruitment for blood donors. Tom said they need professional recruiters, and more training. Additionally the people need to change their attitudes about donating.

Tom was rewarded with a handsome picture of himself and signed a book for the library. If you want to know what a “dashiki” is, send a crisp dollar bill and a self addressed envelope to “Too Lazy to look it up Myself” c/o 5650 S. Broadway Eureka Ca. 95503.

Derisively submitted by Hank Ingham.

Meeting of Rotary Club of Eureka
July 19, 2010

Fully-inaugurated President Carlton Nielsen called on Dave Parris to lead the salute and Dan Heinen gave a thoughtful invocation.

Guests of Rotarians
Charlie Bussman was here with his daughter Wendy Bussman and there were a few others who escaped this author’s grasp. No student guests were present, but our inbound student Gabriel Umidon from Milan, Italy will be here August 12th.

Once again, here is President Nielsen’s board:
David Tyson -- Operations
Gary Todoroff—Club Service Communications
Diane Cipperly--Club Service Membership
Russ Harris--Club Service Meetings
Scott Guild—Club Service Youth
Jason Eads—Revenue and Grants
Greg Williston—Social Service
Greg Gardiner—World Service.

Eric Bergel invited all members to the Rotary rafting trip at Coloma Resort August 21, 22nd.

Greg Williston thanked our club for getting Martin Greve’s wood-shop table back home to Denmark; our club offset $500 of the cost of shipping.

Announcements: Assistant District Governor Steve Justus updated us on the state of the Assistant District Governor who represents us among the other clubs. District Governor Jim Flamson will be visiting our club on Monday August 16th. According to Steve, Jim might be our first green District Governor.

Craig Hansen reminded us of the need to give blood through the Pint for a Pint program.

We heard an enthusiastic craft talk from Sean McLaughlin who is executive director of Access Humboldt: a county and city entity created to manage resources for both public and private sectors in Humboldt. Access Humboldt has a private non-profit board that is open to public. Community access channels 8, 10, 11 and 12 give the public access to various governmental boards around the county. These channels are available for public use and access for free. Brochures and membership applications were handed out to all members.

President Nielsen brought donned a Siberian hat, which means fines are about to come. He recognized Charlie Bussman who has not been here for some time; Charlie paid $25 to the service club. Nancy Dean rose cautiously and admitted that there are some 15 meteorologists at Woodley Island: some even predict weather accurately. She donated $100 to the club. Sean McLaughlin was written up in a national broadband publication for getting Wi-fi and other projects connected around our town and county. Gary Philp admitted that he and the Sheriffs would benefit from this project by utilizing the broadband network often. That will be a 10$ fine to Gary, $10 to John and $25 to Mike Downey.

Next week we will hear about blood banking in Nigeria from our own member, past-President Tom Schallert. The goal is to improve the safety of the blood supply in Nigeria.

Jennifer McMahon (a.k.a. Jenneral Ms. Chief) says Humboldt Roller Derby has been well received in Humboldt. Ticket sales are going up and crowds are coming. They had a tough time finding a venue, until they found a practice space in Blue Lake and started practicing in secret. But now they are now rolling along and soon hope to have non-profit status soon. We then viewed a sizzle reel that gave us a lesson on Roller Derby jargon: “Packers,” “Jammers,” “Hips,” “Booties,” and “No elbows.” The flat track at Redwood Acres shows a circle with lots of women crashing into each other and the floor.

Jennifer said that nobody on the team is paid, but they say it is worth it in spite of the bruises and scrapes because it is great exercise.

The team travels as far as San Francisco and San Diego. The roller games are rated PG-13 according to our speaker, so family friendliness varies depending upon their opponents. We got a sample rehearsal of the Redwood Rollers in action from their announcer.

August 12th at Humboldt County Fairgrounds will be a Rotary Barbecue cook off where Carlton Nielsen and Jason Eads will uphold our reputation at the barbecue pit.

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Price

Meeting of Rotary Club of Eureka

July 12, 2010

Past President Steve Justus called on forty-year member Jim Howard to lead the pledge and Ryan Fray gave the invocation. Past District Governor Dave Dillon and all past presidents stood to welcome incoming president Carlton Nielsen, who for some reason has press coverage from the get-go. Past President Mike Moreland stood and got his pin from Steve Justus. Mike thanked the club for being there as he served last year. Steve Justus urged new President Carlton Nielsen to exemplify the Rotary motto, “Service above self.”

Visiting Rotarians were Liana Simpson of Old Town and Leigh Cunningham from Cupertino. Also, new President Nielsen introduced his parents, and Rotaract attendees also were introduced.

Christine Witt of the Humboldt Area Foundation was a guest of Diane Cipperly. Hank Pierson introduced his wife Cathy.

Exchange student Martin Greve went more places this past year than anyone could count and was given the bon voyage in Danish by our new President. Martin leaves Friday. President Carlton had hosted Martin this past year, and encouraged members to host exchange students. Martin was sent off with a nice round of applause and sincere thanks. Our inbound exchange student Gabriel Umidon will arrive the 12^th of August from Milan, Italy.

Greg Pierson was pinned as president-elect by our new president. Sporting a kind of 1970s hair do, Greg promised to get a hair cut when he becomes president—perhaps even before.

Carley Robbins introduced her Rotaract officers to our club and gave an update on their African fund raising project. She also announced that they had received a presidential citation from Rotary International for the project.

President Nielsen introduced his board:

David Tyson -- Operations

Gary Todoroff—Club Service Communications

Diane Cipperly--Club Service Membership

Russ Harris--Club Service Meetings

Scott Guild—Club Service Youth

Jason Eads—Revenue and Grants

Gregg Williston—Social Service

Gregg Gardiner—World Service.

On the video screen was a story of how we taught our Russian Rotary counterparts to do a fundraiser, and they raised over three thousand dollars with their Rotary Barnaul Cotillion Ball—with which they were very pleased.

Hank Pierson brought Carlton into Rotary in 2001 and Carlton thanked him. Carlton wanted us to know the District Governor is Jim Flamson of Calistoga and Jim will be here August 6^th. Theme for the year is “Connecting our Communities and our Members, Through Service Above Self Since 1923.”

Carlton gave the maintenance and improvement of Cloney Field as an example of service to our community. Another example is homeless kids at Eureka High who fall behind because they lack computer skills and access. We have donated computers to give such kids computer access. Carlton would like to see these kinds of projects multiplied. He would like also to increase membership. More money might be hard to come by in light of the recession, but more members would certainly be possible for the upcoming year.

Club members may be happy to know that recognitions will be tax deductible for the coming year. More small events will be publicized and created as optional. Finally, fundraisers that garner funds from outside the club will be implemented this coming year.

Carlton gave a bit of personal family history. He thanked his parents for getting him here and wife and children for putting up with him. While managing the Staples brought Carlton here, he is now in business for himself running Nylex Network Solutions which specializes in computer programming; he says he likes working for himself a lot better than working for others. After a not too brief--but interesting--description of his ancestors and their feuds from Scotland to Denmark, to the USA, the meeting adjourned--early. So the era of King Carlton is off to a good start!

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Price